At least
one person was killed and 42 others were injured in
three separate incidents of explosions in moving passenger
buses on three consecutive days from March 25 to 27,
2011 in the Terai region of Nepal. An Improvised Explosive
Device exploded in a moving microbus near Milanchowk
in the Butwal area of Rupandehi District on March 27,
injuring at least 23. One of wounded later succumbed
to injuries in the morning of March 28. In a similar
blast, on March 26, seven persons were injured in the
Nepalgunj area of Banke District. No group claimed responsibility
for these two blasts.

However,
another explosion injured 13 passengers near Bhediyachowk
in Rautahat District on March 25, and was claimed by
the Terai Janatantrik Mukti Party (TJMP). The group’s
leader, Abhay Singh, stated that the bus was bombed
for defying a bandha (shut down) called by his
party on February 23. On the same day, another explosion
was carried out by the Madhesh Mukti Sangram (MMS) at
the Women’s Development Office in the Gaur area of the
District. No casualties were reported in this incident.

Concerned
by these blasts, Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA),
on March 28, urged all concerned parties to abstain
from violence. In a press statement MoHA spokesperson
Jaya Mukunda Khanal urged the concerned parties to stop
terrorizing the people by exploding bombs at public
places and on public transport.

In addition
to the series of explosions, an attempt was made on
the life of Balwa Village Defense Committee secretary,
Shiva Ram Pandey, as he was shot at by unidentified
assailants in Mahottari District on March 28. He escaped
unhurt.

Moreover,
Security Forces (SFs) foiled a number of other attacks
too. On March 29, the Nepal Army bomb disposal squad
defused a pressure cooker bomb planted at the City Police
Office in the Traffic Chowk area of Biratnagar in Morang
District. Brochures of the Janatantrik Madhesh Mukti
Tigers (JMMT) were found from the incident site. Another,
bomb was found near the Biratnagar City Police Office
on April 1. Further, the Kalaiya District Police arrested
Dev Narayan Paswan of Sihowa in Bara District, along
with a pistol, bullets, two bombs and a rifle, from
his house. They also recovered a ‘donation pad’ of the
Tarai Utthan Krantikari.

Meanwhile,
three cadres of different armed underground outfits
operating in the Terai were killed in separate incidents
in the border areas on March 31. Those killed were identified
as Chhotelal Patel of JMMT, Shekhar Singh of the Samyukta
Janatantrik Mukti Morcha (SJMM) and Prabhu Thakur of
Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM). Warning of retaliation,
Avay Singh, the Bhojpur District in-charge of the JTMM,
declared, "Nepal Police is behind Ranabir’s murder."

The simmering
violence in the Terai is worrying Kathmandu. Describing
the present upsurge, Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal,
on April 1, observed, "The ongoing activities of
violence taking place in the Terai region are intended
to make the Government a failure… The forces that are
against the timely (framing of the) Constitution in
the country are engaged in waging violence." He, however,
stressed that all problems would be resolved with the
drafting of the new Constitution.

Meanwhile,
a reportpublished by the Democratic Freedom
and Human Rights Institute on March 25 stated that
the state and various armed groups were competing to
perpetrate extra-judicial killings in the Terai. The
report, "The Series of Extra-judicial Killings
in Terai", claimed that the state was involved
in 133 extra-judicial killings, while armed groups were
involved in 128 cases during the 2007-2010 period. Among
the various armed outfits in the Terai responsible for
such killings, the Jwala Singh faction of the JTMM (JTMM-J)
topped the list with 28 murders, followed by the Madhesh
Mukti Tigers (MMT), which had killed 12 persons. On
the basis of geography, Dhanusha District saw the largest
number of extra-judicial killing (31 cases) followed
by Saptari, Bara, Parsa, Siraha, Rautahat, Banke, Rupandehi,
Dang and Kapilvastu. According to the partial data compiled
by the Institute for Conflict Management, a total
of 354 persons including 144 civilians, 84 Security
Force (SF) personnel and 126 terrorists were killed
in the region through 2006-2011 (data till April 2,
2011). During this period overall fatalities in Nepal
stood at 754.

Fatalities
in Terai: 2006-2011

Year

Civilians

SFs

Terrorists

Total

2006

37

79

50

166

2007

50

0

22

72

2008

32

2

23

57

2009

14

1

4

19

2010

8

1

21

30

2011*

3

1

6

10

Total

144

84

126

354

Source:
Institute for Conflict Management
*Data till April 3, 2011

Nepal
is divided into three regions: the Himalayan, Hilly
and Terai regions. The Terai is located along Nepal’s
the Southern border with India, and the name is used
interchangeably with Madhesh, and its people are described
as Madheshis or Madheshyas. 23 per cent of Nepal’s total
land area of 147, 181 square kilometers and approximately
30 to 40 percent of the population falls within this
region. Out of the country’s 75 Districts, 20 are located
in the Terai, including, from east to west, Jhapa, Morang,
Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi,
Rautahat, Bara, Parsa, Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi,
Kapilvastu, Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kalaiya and Kanchanpur.

Violence
in the Terai escalated after the Government of Nepal
signed a peace agreement with the Communist Party of
Nepal-Maoist in 2006 to end a 10 year civil war. Groups
targeting both the State and the Maoists, polarizing
citizens along ethnic issues largely unaddressed during
the civil war, pushed the region towards mayhem. Though
they represent a large portion of the Nepali population,
the Madheshis lack proportional representation in Government
and have long experienced discrimination by Kathmandu
as well as the dominant ethnic groups in Nepal. The
failure to address these issues is claimed as the justification
of violence by the armed Madheshi groups.

In 2007,
the three largest Madheshi political formations, the
Madheshi Janadhikar Forum (MJF),
Terai Madhesh Loktrantrik Party (TMLP) and Sadbhavana
Party (SP), joined forces to create a coalition called
the United Democratic Madheshi Front (UDMF). With the
stated goal of transforming the Terai into a single
autonomous province, Madhesh, the UDMF has sought to
reconstruct the identity of the people living in the
Terai against those outside of it. They have succeeded
exacerbating ethnic divisions and violence at the grassroots
level.

The Madheshi
struggle for autonomy is, however, deeply divided. The
moderates, who primarily demand an autonomous Terai
region within a Federal Nepal, include the MJF, Nepal
Sadbhavana Party-Rajendra Mahato (NSP-RM) and Terai
Madhesh Democratic Party (TMDP). Notably, on November
16, 2007, MJF chairman, Upendra Yadav, explicitly declared
that the forum was against the demand for a separate
Madheshi state: "We oppose the concept of a separate
Madhesh. What we want is an autonomous Terai within
a federal Nepal."

In a
positive development, the Central Committee meeting
of the Madheshi Janadhikar Forum-Nepal on March 29,
2011, decided to join the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified
Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML)-led Government under the
leadership of Chairman Upendra Yadav. However, on April
1, senior CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal reportedly
told the CPN-UML standing committee that the five-member
talks team formed to convince the Nepali Congress and
Madhesh-based parties to join the Jhala Nath Khanal-led
Government had failed in its mission.

However,
30 radical groups
– who seek an independent Terai – continue to engage
in an armed campaign. The most prominent among these
are the JTMM-J, Madhesh Mukti Tigers, JTMM-Rajan), JTMM,
Madhesh Rashtriya Janatantrik Party (Krantikari) and
Terai Mukti Morcha.

Moreover,
criminal activities, particularly extortion and abduction,
have become the order of the day. Armed groups and criminal
gangs abduct children for ransom, and have, in many
cases, murdered them. At least 28 children were abducted
in the Terai region during 2010, according to a Human
Rights Watch (HRW) survey based on English-language
media, with nine of them killed and two girls raped
by their kidnappers. The HRW said the evidence pointed
to much broader criminal activity across Terai. "These
armed groups are willing to risk children's lives to
extort money from poor shopkeepers, farmers, and teachers,"
said Bede Sheppard, senior children's rights researcher
at HRW. Another July 2010 report said that armed groups
are engaged in murder, abduction, explosions, robbery
and forceful collection of ‘donations’. The prominent
groups engaged in such activities include the Terai
Tigers, Madhes Terai Force, Janatantrik Terai Mukti
Mahasangram, and Terai Tufan Yuva Group, among others.
These groups issue threats to the general public, industrialists,
businessmen and employees, both of the Government and
the private sector. In the wake of repeated threats
by underground outfits, secretaries of all 84 Village
Development Committees (VDCs) in the Rautahat District
had resigned en masse on July 6, 2010. On March
21, 2011, secretaries of all the VDCs in Sunsari District
resigned, citing extortion and rising security threats
as the reason. The VDC secretaries were receiving death
threats from several underground groups.

As the
security apparatus in the Terai flounders, the Government
has invited all "armed political outfits" active in
the country to the negotiating table. However, Minister
for Peace and Reconstruction, Barshaman Pun, on March
29, stressed that the Government would hold talks only
with the armed outfits of a political nature and not
with those involved in criminal activities, a distinction
that appears far from tenable in the confusion of the
Terai violence.

Unless
a majority of the armed groups can be brought to the
negotiating table, any alternative scenario of a dialogue
with the few who are willing, would have little impact
on the prospects of peace in the region. Moreover, a
strong and stable Government in Kathmandu, willing to
provide proper representation of the Madhesh people,
will have to prevail long before the Terai can be restored
to tranquility.

Once again
the long-pending and much hyped Pakistan education reforms
are doing rounds in the media with the hope of final implementation.
On March 25, 2011, the World Bank approved a USD 400 million
assistance package to help Pakistan improve the access,
quality and relevance of education at every level. According
to the Bank, the project is designed to improve conditions
for teaching, learning and research for enhanced access.
The project will aim at quality and relevance at the tertiary
level across the country, while continuing to increase
enrolment rates and reduce gender and rural-urban disparities
in primary education in Punjab and Sindh Provinces.

Rachid
Benmessaoud, the World Bank Country Director, noted that
Pakistan’s transition to a middle-income country in the
global knowledge economy of the 21st century
will depend critically on its intellectual and human capital.
It was necessary for Pakistan to upscale its entire education
system so that it can produce skilled, innovative and
enterprising graduates, as well as improve research and
innovation capacity to promote dynamic economic development.

In addition
to World Bank aid, a number of other agencies, including
NGOs, are supporting individual educational projects in
Pakistan, many of them with a focus on the education of
girls.

Pakistan’s
education sector has of course, suffered due to the lack
of resources, but the lack of political will and acute
religious extremism, with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
(TTP) blowing up primary Government schools,
have been far more significant factors. Pakistan’s crisis
of primary education is worsened by the TTP’s coercive
recruitment of children as live bombs.

In one
glaring incident, on January 26, 2011, a 13 year old boy
announced, "I have come", before blowing himself
up at a security picket at the Urdu Intersection in Lahore,
Punjab, killing 10 people, including a woman and three
Policemen, and injuring 85. A Washington Times
report noted that there was a big price tag on child bombers,
ranging from USD 7,000 to USD 14,000. A CNN report
added that Pakistan’s South Waziristan Agency in the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a TTP stronghold, is
used for training suicide bombers between the ages of
12 and 18.

On March
28, Police arrested a seminary student, Wahab, for his
alleged involvement in the bomb blast in the Hashtnagri
area of Peshawar, the Provincial Capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(PK), which left 18 persons injured on March 25. On the
same day, unidentified militants blew up a primary school
for girls and a high school for boys in Jawaki area of
Frontier Region (FR) Kohat in FATA.

This is
the present educational landscape of Pakistan, where children
are both instruments and victims of TTP terrorism. Concerns
rise further because of the growing number of madrasas
(seminaries) that breed sectarianism and hatred for other
communities. Zahid Hussein, an expert on militant Islam
in Pakistan argues that madrasas need to go beyond
updating their curricula, since this is not going to undercut
radicalisation unless there is a change in the environment
of the madrasas which create and nurture extremism.

On February
26, Pakistani mediapublished the ‘Education Manifestos’
of various political parties. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) called for
improvements in quality and standard of education in the
country, while the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Awami
National Party (ANP) outlined broad strategies to secure
similar objectives. The pro-Taliban Jama’at–e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl
(JUI-F), which runs large number of madrasas in
Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and is led by Maulana
Fazlur Rehman, differed from the others, supporting an
‘Islamic’ system of education. JUI-F’s clear agenda is
to throttle the reforms. This religious political party
has raised an alarm over the ‘dubious’ restructuring of
the education system and has sought to strengthen radical
forces to further their Islamisation programme.
Lack of unanimity on education monitoring and reform Pakistan
has created an ‘education emergency’, where there is much
talk and no action. Former President General Ziaul-Haq’s
disciples still dominate educational policy, making religion
an ideological instrument in all spheres of life.

On March
8, 2011, the launch of the March for Education campaign
was organised, and a booklet giving a grim picture of
the Education Emergency in Pakistan, was released.
The booklet noted that one in ten children in Pakistan
is out of school, equivalent to the population of Lahore,
placing the country second in the global ranking of out-of-school
kids. The report says that seven million children in the
country are not in primary school, while three million
will never see the inside of a classroom. The speakers
at the launch lamented the current rate of progress. Shahnaz
Wazir Ali, the ruling PPP legislator said, "The Government’s
commitment has been articulated but it did not translate
into action on ground."

The presentation
showed children in classrooms that resembled sheds and
noted that 35 per cent of schools in Sindh have no building
or are in a dangerous condition. Nationwide, over 21,000
schools had no building, while only 39 per cent had electricity.
Across Pakistan, just 36 per cent of public schools are
said to be in ‘satisfactory’ condition. The report also
highlighted fewer educational opportunities for girls
in the country and observed that, at the current rate,
Punjab would only be able to provide all children with
their constitutional right to education by 2041, while
Balochistan would reach this goal by 2100. One of the
speakers at the launch declared, "It is absolutely
unacceptable what is happening to children in Pakistan.
The responsibility falls on this Government, successive
Governments and the people." The speakers called
for political will to sustain a programme of education
reform, and an increase in education expenditure to four
per cent of the GDP (USD174,800 million). Pakistan spent
2.5 per cent of its budget on schooling in 2005/2006.
It now spends just 1.5 per cent.

The report
supports the declaration of 2011 as the ‘year of education’
by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, demanding that the
year be used to turn around the situation and head off
the "impending disaster".

The school
curriculum in Pakistan has long been condemned as being
exclusionary, ideologically motivated, and stereotypical,
with obsolete content and biased viewpoints. The Hamood-ur-Rehman
Commission, which was constituted by the Pakistan Government
under then Chief Justice of Pakistan Supreme Court Hamood-ur-Rehman
to investigate the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, noted
that the 1971 war saw thousands killed, leaving permanent
scars on millions of people in Bangladesh who witnessed
torture and death of their countrymen at the hands of
the Pakistan Army. Instead of the findings of the report,
all that the new generation of Pakistan knows about the
war comes from the state curriculum. Instead of setting
record straight on the creation of Bangladesh and the
real reasons for the separation, students in Pakistan
are taught conspiracy theories and factually incorrect
versions of history. Nowhere in textbooks is there a mention
of the documented atrocities committed by the Pakistan
Army, which include mass rape, targeted killings and genocide.
The textbooks also fail to mention the number of civilian
deaths in East Pakistan in the period leading up to the
creation of Bangladesh. Nor do they mention Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto’s inflexible stand on sharing power with Mujib-ur-Rehman’s
Awami League.

Misconceived
textbooks indoctrinate the new generation with concocted
stories and a distorted history, leaving little space
for the de-radicalisation of Pakistani society. Islamabad’s
biased course content is bound to produce a violent and
intolerant generation.

An ideologically
driven curriculum is not only far from reform, but will,
sooner or later, lead to a survival crisis in Pakistan.
Unable to deal with challenges of failed nation-building
and national integration, Islamabad has fallen back on
religion as a unifying force. This instrumentalisation
of Islam, however, has only added to the country’s woes,
with extremism gaining momentum. Unless a strategic national
policy emerges, to deter children from falling into the
trap of militancy, Pakistan will remain ‘educationally
infertile’, and will continue its hurtling flight into
chaos.

NEWS
BRIEFS

Weekly
Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South AsiaMarch 28-April 3,
2011

Civilians

Security
Force Personnel

Terrorists/Insurgents

Total

INDIA

Assam

0

3

1

4

Manipur

2

0

0

2

Jammu &
Kashmir

2

0

2

4

Left-wing Extremism

Bihar

1

0

0

1

Jharkhand

1

0

0

1

Maharashtra

1

0

0

1

West Bengal

1

0

0

1

Total (INDIA)

8

3

3

14

NEPAL

1

0

2

3

PAKISTAN

Balochistan

15

0

0

15

FATA

3

14

28

45

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

22

5

12

39

Punjab

41

0

2

43

Total (PAKISTAN)

81

19

42

142

Provisional
data compiled from English language media sources.

BANGLADESH

BNP
keeps off JeI in its anti-Government
programme: The
Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP) will not team up with
Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) to launch
any anti-Government programme
until War Crimes (WCs) allegations
against top JeI leaders are
settled. A section of influential
BNP leaders are strongly opposing
the idea to revive the alliance,
as some senior JeI leaders now
face trial for their alleged
involvement in crimes against
humanity during the 1971 Liberation
War. The
Daily Star,
March 29, 2011

INDIA

13,
215 civilians killed in violence
in Jammu and Kashmir since 1990,
informs State Government: The State Government
in a written reply told the Legislative
Council that a total of 13, 215
civilians have been killed in
violence since 2009. It disclosed
that this included a total 698
political activists/ leaders.
The highest number of 101 politicians
were killed during 2002, followed
by 76 in 2001, 62 during 2004,
61 in 1996 while 58 each during
1997 and 1998. During 2008, 09
and 10, four each political activists
were killed by terrorists while
during this year up to February
25, 2011, only one political worker
was killed in such incident. Daily
Excelsior,
April 1, 2011.

Infiltration
bid on rise in Jammu and Kashmir,
says Army: Army
sources at New Delhi stated on
March 29 that the infiltration
attempts by Pakistan-based terrorist
organisations into Jammu and Kashmir
increased slightly in 2010 with
recorded 500 such bids as against
490 in 2009. In these attempts,
120-125 militants were able to
enter into Indian Territory. Daily
Excelsior,
March 30, 2011.

300-350
militants' active in the State,
says Jammu and Kashmir DGP Kuldeep
Khoda: The Director
General of Police (DGP), Kuldeep
Khoda, stated on April 1, that
while nearly 45 per cent reduction
in the militancy related incidents
has been recorded in the first
quarter of 2011, over 300 to 350
terrorists are still active in
the State. Out of these total
militants operating, nearly 45
per cent of them are foreigners.
Daily
Excelsior,
April 2, 2011.

Doors
to militant groups open, says
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh:
Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh on April 2 said
that the Union Government was
open to talks with all militant
outfits and the discussions with
the United Liberation Front of
Asom (ULFA) had been a good beginning.
"The ULFA peace talks are a good
beginning. Our doors for peace
talks with all militant groups
are open. We want the militants
to shun violence and come for
talks," the Prime Minister said.
Times
of India,
April 3, 2011.

NEPAL

NA
proposes separate unit comprising
of Maoist combatants, Police and
Army personnel: Nepal Army
(NA) has proposed to form a separate
general directorate under its
command comprising of certain
number of personnel from NA, Nepal
Police, Armed Police Force and
Maoist combatants to complete
the peace process. In a report
submitted to Prime Minister Jhala
Nath Khanal, Chief of Army Staff
Chhatraman Singh Gurung has said,
a general directorate with up
to 12,000 personnel could be formed
and deployed for special tasks
like border, industrial or forest
security and for rescue works
in case of natural disasters.
eKantipur,
March 30, 2011.

Statute
sub-committee term extended by
another 15 days: The tenure
of the sub-committee under the
Constitutional Committee (CC)
formed to resolve disputes in
the issues to be incorporated
in the new constitution has been
extended for the second time by
15 days. A CC meeting in the morning
of March 30 decided to extend
the sub-committee's tenure till
April 14.
Nepal News,
March 31, 2011.

Government
invites armed political outfits
for talks: The Government
has invited all "armed political
outfits" active in the country
to the negotiating table. Minister
for Peace and Reconstruction Barshaman
Pun on March 29 said the Government
would hold talks only with the
armed outfits of political nature
and not with those involving in
criminal activities.
Nepal News,
March 30, 2011.

Drafting
of new constitution possible in
two months, says Prime Minister
Jhala Nath Khanal: Prime
Minister (PM) Jhala Nath Khanal
has claimed it is possible to
draft the new constitution and
conclude the peace process in
the coming two months. "The constitution
can be written and the peace process
can come to a conclusion within
the stipulated time if major political
partiers show commitment to these
objectives," PM Khanal said on
April 1.
Nepal News,
April 2, 2011.

PAKISTAN

41
civilians killed in suicide attack
in Punjab: At
least 41 persons were killed and
more than 100 injured when two
suicide bombers blew themselves
up outside the shrine of Sufi
saint Ahmed Sultan, popularly
known as Sakhi Sarwar, in Dera
Ghazi Khan District of Punjab.Daily
Times,
April 4, 2011.

28
militants and 14 SFs among 45
persons killed during the week
in FATA: Security
Forces (SFs) killed seven militants
through gunship helicopter shelling
in the Tirah Valley of Khyber
Agency in Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA) on April 3.

Four
militants were killed while another
12 injured in the factional clash
between Mangal Bagh-led Lashkar-e-Islam
(LI) volunteers and their opposition
force, led by ‘commander’ Toti
Khan, in the far-flung areas of
Zakha Khel Bazaar (market) in
Landikotal tehsil (revenue
unit) of Khyber Agency on April
2.

Nine
militants were killed when SFs
launched a counter-offensive after
the militants attacked a checkpost
in Dabori area of Orakzai Agency
on April 1.

Unidentified
militants beheaded three watchmen
at a NATO trucks’ terminal near
Landi Kotal railway station in
the Khyber Agency.

SFs
killed eight militants and injured
several others during a search
operation in Kurram Agency on
March 31.

At
least 14 paramilitary troops,
among them two senior officers,
were killed in a militant ambush
on their convoy in the Akakhel
area of Bara tehsil in
Khyber Agency on March 28.Dawn;
Daily
Times;Tribune;
The
News,
March 29 - April 4, 2011.

22
civilians and 12 militants among
39 persons killed during the week
in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 10
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)
militants, including five top
ranking ‘commanders’, were killed
during an encounter Security Forces
(SFs) in Tor Chapar village of
Darra Adamkhel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
on April 3.

A
suicide bomber struck a convoy
carrying Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl
(JUI-F) Chief, Maulana Fazlur
Rehman, near the District Coordination
Officer office on Nowshera Road
in Charsadda District on March
31, killing 12 persons and injuring
42 others.

13
persons, including a Policeman,
were killed and more than 20 others
were injured in an incident of
suicide attack in Swabi town on
March 30.Dawn;
Daily
Times;Tribune;
The
News,
March 29 - April 4, 2011.

JUI-F
Chief offered to mediate between
US and Taliban, reveals WikiLeaks:
During
a visit to India in 2007, Jamiat
Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Chief
Maulana Fazlur Rehman had hinted
at offering his services as a
mediator between the US and Taliban,
diplomatic cables released by
WikiLeaks reported on April 1.
The cables published by the Indian
daily The Hindu say that
US Assistant Political Counsellor
Atul Keshap reported on May 3,
2007, that officials had met on
April 27, 2007 Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind
(JUiH) leader Mahmood Madani and
Pandit N. K. Sharma, who claimed
close ties with the Gandhi family,
after Maulana Fazl visited New
Delhi from April 22 to 26.Dawn,
April 1, 2011.

Pakistan
agrees to allow Indian team to
probe 26/11 terror case: During the India-Pakistan
Home Secretary level talks which
ended in New Delhi on March 29,
Pakistan conveyed its readiness,
in principle, to entertain a commission
from India with respect to the
Mumbai terror attack (November
26, 2011, also known as 26/11)
probe, on the principle of comity
and reciprocity. A decision to
set up a 'hotline' between the
countries to share "real time"
information on terror threats
was also taken during the talks.
Times
of India,
March 30, 2011.

90
per cent Orakzai Agency 'cleared'
of militants, claims Orakzai Political
Agent: About
90 per cent of Orakzai Agency
in Federally Administered Tribal
Areas (FATA) has been cleared
of militants and the internally
displaced people should now quickly
return to the safe areas, said
Orakzai Political Agent Riaz Khan
Masud on March 29.Dawn,
March 26, 2011.

SRI LANKA

Interpol
issues warrant against a Sri Lankan
Tamil national: The Interpol
issued an arrest warrant against
a Sri Lankan national in the United
Kingdom for his alleged involvement
in human smuggling (Sri Lankan
Tamils to Canada), trafficking,
illegal immigration, and terrorism.
The accused, identified as Shanmugasundaram
Kanthaskaran, is originally a
Sri Lankan Tamil from Silavathurai
region. Colombo
Page,
March 31, 2011.

Reconciliation commission concludes
public sittings: Sri Lanka's
Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation
Commission (LLRC) said that it
has concluded its public sittings
on March 30. The LLRC Spokesperson
Lakshman Wickremesinghe told the
media that the LLRC public sittings
were concluded with its visit
to Ampara. The Commission will
hand over its report to President
Mahinda Rajapakse in May when
the term of the LLRC will come
to an end. Colombo
Page,
March 30, 2011.

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